The Portland daily press., 1887-08-10
The poacher and the Game Laws.

New York, like Maine, has game region.
The Adirondacks were famous for theil deer
and trout before the tide of travel had turned
towards Maine, and before our Fish and
Game Commission had effected much in its
great work of preserving and replenishing
the States stock of game. The forests of
New York, as Of Maine, are under the con-
troll of board Of Fish Commissioners. and
game constables are appointed to enforce a
law providing that no one shall kill more
than three deer in any year, that no carcass
Of any deer shall be transported on a rail-
road in the State unless the owner is along
in the same train, and further also that no
owner shall take with him more than one
carcass. This law of course, it is possible to
enforce easily. But stacks of deerskins.
against the transportation Of which there is
no law, are hauled out of the Adirondack re-
gion continually, showing that the slaugh-
ter goes on in spite of the law A cor
respondent of the New York sun, writ
ing from the Adirondaeks, says it is ques-
ton whether more deer are not killed in July
and August than in any other two months of
the year. The flies and mosquitoes are par
tcularly bad this year, and the deer to es-
cape them are taking to the water in droves.
The Adirondacks are full of little lakes, and
1t is in them that the deer are slaughtered.
The gunner floats about the water and the
deer are fascinated by torch, so that the
gunner easily gets within range The favor
lite canoe is the folding sort made of canvas
stretched over wooden frames although
RATS and dugouts and even rough board
boxes are made to do service. But the port
able canoes are the most convenient. and so
great has been the destruction wrought by
them that honest sportsmen have declared
them IAN invention of the devil" This
slaughterlng in the summer is done princi-
pally by tourists. In the winter the men
who are guides in summer and other less re-
putable skin hunters take their turn. When
the snow is deep the deer are butchered in
their yards, merely for the profit of their
skins. The carcasses except so much as the
poacher can carry away, are left to rot. 1t
10 not an uncommon thing in the Adiron-
dacks to find from three TO five skeletons of
deer in the woods within few hundred
yards OF one another. By knives and axes
the slaughter goes on. The Suns cores
pendent found one town where it was OPEN
ly talked that seven hundred deer were
slaughtered last winter.
The efforts made in Maine to preserve the
fish and game form well known, and even
tragic story. There is yet much wanton slaugh-
ter of game, but probably nothing such as is
represented as occurring in New York. If
the Adirondacks are to be depopulated of
their game and fish, and the trout are suffer-
ing with the deer, the preserves of Maine
will be still more valuable and more fire.
quented. 1t will therefore be even more i'm
portant that our game laws be observed. In
view ork 1t Is great problem to secure an
encieht Dody OF game constables; the same
problem mas to be faced in Maine. A New
1orK game constable is paid five hundred
dollars year with two hundred and 6fty
dollars for expenses. In Maine the Fish and
Game Commissioners are given a lump sum
which is inadequate to protect the forests
and streams, fight the lawsuits, and paw for
the other incidental expenses of the service
The difficulty of getting good men for
wardens is supplemented In Maine by a
scarcity of funds for administering the law
over so wide an area. The remedy which
has been suggested in New York, and is
therefore of interest in Name is to take the
enforcement of the game laws from the Fish
Commissioners and leave it with the Forest
Commissioners, board of officers such as
we do not have in Maine. An act is pro-
posed authorizing the latter commission to
license guides to the hunting and fishing
grounds of the State. giving to each licensed
guide badge and commission as an officer
OF the State for the enforcement of the game
laws. 1t is not proposed to give these guides
salaries, but there are number of compen-
sa.iohs Which It is thought would make the
gulueS emclent officers. For instance, list
OF the licensed guides would be kept in an
office in New York tolbe opened for the pur-